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Dr John Chia graduated with double distinctions in Medicine and Surgery from the National University of Singapore in 1999, and obtained his Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh in 2002. Early on in his career, he was actively engaged with the then nascent field of immunotherapy for solid cancers, and heavily involved with the leadership or development of 7 immunotherapy clinical trials in Singapore. Post Oncology Boards in 2008 and 2009, he undertook fellowship training with Professor Malcom Brenner – in the field of Immunotherapy for Solid Tumours – namely in the development of dendritic cancer vaccines, adoptive T cell therapy, and immune biomarker monitoring for cancers. In 2011 and 2012, he completed a second fellowship with Professor Stan Kaye at The Royal Marsden Hospital London for the Advanced Management of Gynaecological cancers.

Dr Chia is active in clinical trial research, and has developed numerous research protocols and trials for ovarian, cervical, colorectal, nasopharyngeal, and breast cancer. He has published widely in leading international journals, and holds numerous local and international research grants exceeding 10 million dollars – for research in immune check-point inhibitors, cancer vaccines, T cell therapy, Aspirin chemoprevention, and small molecule inhibitors for cancer. In 2010, he was awarded “Best Poster” for a tumour-specific cancer vaccine trial at the European Society of Medical Oncology, Milan (amongst several thousand submissions), and more recently “Best Poster Presentation” at ESMO Asia in 2017, for his clinical trial in aggressive ovarian cancer.

Dr Chia was the former Chief of the Gynaecology Oncology service in the Division of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre, and is Vice-President and founding board member of the Gynaecologic Cancer Group Singapore. He was also the former Adjunct Associate Professor at DUKE-NUS. He lectures widely, including in Japan, Korea, HK, China, UK – including plenary symposia lectures in Germany, Australia and ESMO Asia. Locally he has helped to write the Singapore ovarian and uterine cancer management guidelines (SCAN). He is the President of the GCGS (Gynecologic Cancer Group Singapore).

He is exco member of the Mt Elizabeth Novena Hospital medical board and the ex-chair of their Neoplasia committee. He is a member of the Parkway Independent Ethics committee since 2019, that oversees the review and approval of clinical trials, recruiting human subjects for novel therapies in the Parkways hospital system.

For more than 20 years, Dr Chia has run a busy clinical practice, managing complex Gynae-oncology. His sub-speciality interests include Ovarian, Endometrial, Cervical, Breast and Colorectal cancers – including the management of rare tumours – such as melanoma, uterine sarcomas, and germ cell tumours.

Area of Interest

• Gynaecological cancers
• Breast cancer
• Colorectal cancer
• Rare tumours

Dr Lynette Ngo is a medical oncologist who specializes in women’s cancers – breast and gynaecologic cancers including ovary, endometrial, uterine and cervical cancers.

Dr Ngo graduated from National University of Singapore in 1996. She further pursued a Master of Medicine degree in Internal Medicine and obtained her membership of the Royal College of Physicians in UK in 2002. She received her post graduate Diploma in Palliative Medicine from Edith Cowan University in Australia in 2006 and obtained her specialist accreditation in medical oncology from the Academy of Medicine, Singapore in 2007. She is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), European Society of Clinical Oncology (ESMO), Asian Society of Gynaecologic Oncology (ASGO) and Singapore Society of Oncology (SSO). She serves on the Singapore Cancer Network (SCAN) guidelines committee.

Prior to Curie Oncology, Dr Ngo practised at National Cancer Centre, Singapore (NCCS) from 2005 to 2012 before moving to Raffles Cancer Centre, Raffles Hospital from 2012 to 2019. Aside from being a Clinical Tutor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, she was also a Visiting Consultant to both KKWCH Gynaecologic Cancer Centre and KKWCH Breast Centre as well as to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. In addition, she spent 5 years caring for patients in hospice home care and in-patient hospice services in the community prior to joining NCCS.

Dr Ngo’s areas of interest are in breast and gynaecologic cancers, hereditary cancers and genetic counselling, psychosocial oncology and palliative medicine, in addition to general medical oncology. In pursuing her sub-specialty interest in gynaecologic cancers, Dr Ngo was awarded the Health Manpower Development Programme Award to spend a year at the Gillette Center for Gynecologic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), USA. In collaboration with the MGH gynaecologic oncology team, she designed and conducted several investigator-initiated clinical trials, testing novel drugs and treatment strategies in subsets of gynaecologic cancers with molecularly defined pathways. She had received a grant from the SingHealth Foundation for her research work and was involved in multiple clinical trials in Raffles Hospital focusing on breast and gynaecologic cancers. She has contributed to numerous publications in peer reviewed journals and written book chapters.

Recognizing the challenges faced by patients, caregivers, and even survivors, Dr Ngo started the Raffles Cancer Support Programme in April 2013 to provide education, psychosocial and emotional support throughout the cancer journey.

Dr Ngo has also completed the Intensive Course in Cancer Risk Assessment at City of Hope Hospital in California, USA from Oct 2017 to Mar 2018. She established the Hereditary Cancer Risk assessment clinic and genetic counselling in Raffles Hospital.

Area of Interest

• Breast cancer
• Gynaecological cancers